


The Lone Wolf

by Marcus_S_Lazarus



Category: Underworld (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Michael's bitten earlier
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:53:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26846206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marcus_S_Lazarus/pseuds/Marcus_S_Lazarus
Summary: Michael Corvin was trying to cope with an unusual condition, and Selene just thought he was an unusually independent lycan. What happens when the lone wolf meets the greatest living Death Dealer?
Relationships: Michael Corvin/Selene
Comments: 14
Kudos: 37





	1. The Worst Night of His Life

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline-wise, this fic starts a few months before what would have been the start of the original film, but things changed significantly for Michael in particular for reasons that will be explained soon.

It had been a year since the accident, and Michael Corvin was still amazed that he'd managed to keep it together as much as he had.

The experience of losing Samantha in the car crash would have been bad under any circumstances, but when he'd also had to deal with the memory of that… _thing_ … he'd hit… like something from a horror movie had just walked off the screen…

God, if it hadn't been for those scratches on his arm, he probably would have assumed it was all just some twisted nightmare, but even at his worst, he wasn't sure he could have imagined any of that, particularly when he'd been totally sober that night. He'd been told that the other driver had been the cause of the accident because the man had been drunk, but Michael still wondered if the man had been _that_ drunk or if it was just because he'd seen the same thing Michael had and had less control of himself.

The image of that giant wolf still made Michael shiver, no matter how long it had been or what had happened to him since then. He wasn't sure what something like that had been doing in the middle of a busy road, but somehow the thing had been stupid enough to run into the street just in time to get caught between him and that other car. Sam had barely had time to scream before the engine hitting her in the chest had left her breathless and unconscious, while the other car (from what little clear memory he had of the accident) must have basically pulverized the wolf's spine and most of its organs, its head crashing through the windshield. Michael only briefly registered its fangs digging into his arm as he tried to push it away, but eventually he and the wolf must have both blacked out.

When he woke up a short while later, the wolf had vanished, but the fact that both cars were still pinned together made it clear that the accident itself had been real. Sam had been half-delirious from the pain, only able to ask him if he was all right before she finally lost consciousness, dying just a few minutes before an ambulance arrived. Michael had tried to convince himself that he'd just imagined the parts involving the wolf, but even if he'd wanted to be rational about it, that scratch on his arm had been itchy enough that he had a few suspicions about the whole thing no matter how much he tried to tell himself that it had been caused by the shattered glass.

It hadn't been enough for him to want to tell anyone else about it, especially when he had Sam's funeral to worry about, but Michael was relieved beyond words that an old friend's interest in horror movies had inspired him to take the time to find a suitably isolated spot for the night of the next full moon after the original accident. The old warehouse he'd found had mainly been useful because it was so isolated, but after he'd spent most of the night waiting for something to happen, he'd almost been relieved when he actually felt himself changing and knew he hadn't gone to all that trouble for nothing. The first moments of the change had felt like his body was being kicked apart from the inside, giving him a disturbing image of the _Alien_ movies before he'd basically blacked out, but when he'd regained control of himself he'd felt a bit more relaxed, as though he'd just woken up from a deep sleep.

It was still disorientating to go through the change, of course, but at least he came through the whole experience without getting anyone else killed.

There were times when Michael wondered why he hadn't met another werewolf yet, but frankly, if the thing he'd seen on the road that night was any example of what the average werewolf was like, he was almost glad he didn't know more of them. Every time he blacked out at the full moon he was terrified of waking up and finding bits of other people in his teeth, and as it was he still kept finding the occasional local news report of animal attacks the next morning no matter how securely he tried to lock himself up. He was starting to get a better sense of what he did when he was in that wolf state, but the memories still felt like a bad dream when he 'woke up' the next morning, and he was still amazed that he'd managed to avoid embarrassing public nudity charges; his wolf had always stuck close to wherever he changed, even if it never stayed in the warehouse itself.

Learning about his new dietary requirements still slightly puzzled him, since he was fairly sure vampires were the ones meant to prefer blood, but through trial and error in private he'd managed to work out that raw steaks were close enough so that he could at least train his body to keep them down if he was on a night out. Even the occasional drink with friends was tolerable so long as he didn't over-indulge, so he tended to always volunteer as the designated driver for nights out to give himself a plausible reason not to be shown drinking much.

In any case, when he'd felt the need to get away from the memories of Sam and what they could have had, coming to Budapest had seemed like the best way to get away from the painful old memories and try and explore a few more pleasant ones. His grandparents were dead or had moved on by now, but they'd left him enough to find a flat, and he'd even managed to make arrangements to reserve an old storage locker on the outskirts of town that he could basically lock himself in every month. He'd managed to establish a complex little favour network at the hospital that ensured he always got the night of the full moon off by trading shifts with others; since an apparent side-effect of his new condition was a lesser need for sleep, it was easy enough for him to cover a few day shifts to make up the numbers. He'd even done a little private analysis of his own bloodwork, which had been enough to tentatively identify whatever had infected him as a kind of mutated rabies, but attempts to treat his blood with a rabies vaccine hadn't produced any kind of result, and he didn't have the necessary expertise to try and devise a better treatment himself.

It wasn't a perfect arrangement, but so far the wolf hadn't punched through the door or done any serious damage to the storage locker, so all Michael had to do was take a change of clothes there with him each night and hope nothing went wrong until he returned to normal. Until he could work out if there was any kind of 'cure' for this thing, or at least some way to keep the wolf under control apart from locking himself away each night, Michael supposed he should just be grateful that he had enough savings to cover the cost of the storage locker on top of everything else.

It was a lonely life, but he just had to hope he'd find some better way to control what had happened to him eventually…


	2. An Unexpected Sighting

It might appear like a contradictory phrase, but in Selene's view, the most frustrating thing about the modern world was that it was so easy to find any lycan activity.

It made it straightforward enough to find lycans when the beasts showed themselves, even by something as simple as mysterious cattle deaths or anything like that, but those same connections meant that she knew when there was no legitimate sign of any lycan activity.

She was fairly sure that the lycans hadn't become extinct yet, as there were enough reported lycan attacks without any sign of an accompanying corpse to tie to them, but it had been so long since there had been a report worth following up that she was feeling particularly frustrated. With Kraven constantly inviting her to accompany him to some of those 'parties' he was always trying to set up, Selene would take any opportunity she could find to get out of the mansion, but there were times when she worried that she was using up even Khan's respect for her by following up so many potential leads.

Still, at the moment she was on a routine surveillance mission that even Kraven couldn't object to. For a veteran Death Dealer like Selene, one advantage of living in Budapest was that there would always be an opportunistic lycan or two who would try their luck against penetrating the mansion's defences to take out the sleeping Elders. With that in mind, it was important for them to keep a close eye on local hospitals in case lycans tried to raid the blood supply for quick food; lycans could eat raw meat, but blood was still a staple of their diet.

It was a relatively small-scale assignment, but with the recent lack of more public lycan activity, this was still Selene's best chance to find something interesting. One advantage to immortality was a sense of patience, and she refused to be like Kraven, who constantly favoured instant gratification without any real appreciation of the hardships required to do a proper job.

 _How he ever managed to be a Death Dealer for any length of time I'll never understand; he would have complained the minute he missed a chance to groom himself_ …

Selene's thoughts trailed off as a familiar scent reached her nose. Her thoughts shifted from berating Kraven to the task at hand, her eyes urgently scanning the area below her as she sought the source of the scent. After a few seconds, her gaze settled on a young man with long hair walking out of the hospital's rear door, wearing a dark coat and walking with his head facing downwards. On his own the figure was relatively unremarkable, but the scent of blood in his pockets would have been a clue even if the scent of lycan wasn't apparent once she concentrated on him.

 _A lycan working in a hospital_?

Selene knew that a few vampires maintained some form of regular employment to avoid attracting too much attention, but most of those were in Ziodex and other affiliated agencies. The idea of a lycan actually working somewhere felt strange to Selene, even if she could see the logic of it; working in a hospital would give the lycan access to blood and body-parts, depending on their choice of diet.

For a moment her hands hovered over her Berettas, but she quickly dismissed that tentative plan; killing one lycan might be satisfying, but lycans never travelled alone in her experience. For all she knew, this man was just the immediate human contact for a larger group; shooting him would be satisfying, but it would leave his associates free and clear just because she was impatient.

Her mind made up, Selene began to move cautiously along the rooftops, until her target headed down the stairs into a subway. She jumped down to follow him onto the train, but remained at a cautious distance, staying on the other side of the station until he got into the next train. She followed him onto the train, but remained in a carriage at the opposite end of the train from her target, cautiously peering out of her carriage door at each stop just in case he got out. She attracted a couple of questioning looks from the humans on the train when she did that, but another advantage of her Death Dealer leathers was that it reinforced the impression that she wasn't someone who would react very well to being questioned.

Eventually her target got off the train and Selene followed his example, again taking care to maintain her distance while keeping him in sight. With the thick crowd masking her scent from a casual sniff, so long as the lycan didn't suspect he was being followed, it should theoretically be safe enough to keep an eye on him without being spotted herself, but she had to be careful…

After a few more minutes' walking, the lycan walked into an apartment block. Selene paused outside the building to consider her options; the building seemed an unlikely place for a lycan nest, and looked more like the kind of place that a mortal medical student would stay in, but she couldn't ignore the implications of that man walking into it. Eventually, she came to a decision and walked carefully into the building, hands hovering over her weapons without making it too obvious. Once inside, it was easy enough to confirm that her target was the only lycan in this building given the single distinct scent, which she followed up a few levels to Apartment 510, where the scent following ended. She paused in thought outside the door for a moment, but decided against it; charging into the room wouldn't help her determine if there was more to this whole situation than one apparently lone lycan.

She'd find out who this man was and then keep an eye on him for the next few weeks until she had worked out where his pack was and their size. Once she'd determined where the rest of his pack were, she and Kahn could lead an assault and take them all out in one go, and that would be that.

 _Anything to get me out of the mansion for a few nights with a legitimate excuse_ …

Mind made up, Selene walked briskly down the stairs and out of the apartment, glancing at her watch before she decided to take the train again; it wasn't that much quicker than walking, but she could use some time to consider her next steps in her new project, and it was easier to think sitting down in case she wanted to make any additional notes.

Obviously the first step would be to do some background research into her apparent target and see if that held any clues, but if she was careful, Selene might be able to find more out from a discreet visit before she 'had' to confront this man directly…


	3. Lycan on Lockdown

After a few nights of searching for anything new on Michael Corvin, Selene wasn't sure how far this private little enterprise was going to take her.

Once she'd returned to the mansion, it had been easy enough to access the city records and establish that her new lycan target was Michael Corvin, an American medical student who had moved to Budapest from Long Island in New York less than a year ago. His nationality had been a surprise, but it wasn't as though the lycans had confined themselves to Europe any more than the vampires had. There were even rumours of one or two older lycans over in America building up a power base for themselves, but as these rumoured leaders seemed content to wait and gather their strength, Amelia had concluded that it was best to focus on the more active threat in Europe before turning their attention to a group that seemed content to be left alone so far.

That said, even if it was possible that Corvin was some representative of the American lycan packs, Selene wasn’t going to attack him until she knew for certain what to expect. His scent confirmed that he was a lycan, and once or twice she’d seen him react to such close calls as a cyclist passing too close to him to be sure that he had lycan instincts, but he had yet to actually do anything that might suggest he was in contact with more lycans. A quick check of his personal history didn’t reveal anything more significant than a brief period in the United States Marine Corps that ended with a discharge after less than a year, and she couldn’t find out more about that without drawing more attention to this endeavour than she was ready to. Apart from that, the only thing that stood out in his personal history was the car accident that had killed his fiancé shortly before he moved, and that could be easily explained as the catalyst for his move. 

If she brought in more of the coven’s resources, she might be able to better tap Corvin’s communications and other details, but once she approached Kahn about her suspicions of a lycan presence he would be obligated to tell Kraven about her activities. She appreciated that Kraven would have to learn the truth eventually, but if she brought Corvin up now she was concerned that Kraven would just dismiss her concerns as her looking for trouble and have Corvin killed as a lone lycan before she could find out anything more.

The first few nights had been nothing but fairly standard surveillance, with Corvin working night shifts at the hospital and occasionally making calls when he returned to his apartment before bed. On her first night tracking him, Selene had infiltrated his apartment by the window and spent some time taking in his scent so that she could track him more easily in future, as well as a quick check of his computer system. When Corvin arrived home earlier than expected, Selene had managed to find a good position to listen to some of his phone calls while she waited just outside his window, but everything she heard seemed to be nothing more distinctive than an American medical intern catching up with a few old friends back in his home country. As much as she suspected that he was talking to his lycan colleagues, just interrupting Corvin's phone call to try and question someone that way would be stupid at best, and tapping the line was another thing that would require more focus being paid to this search than she was ready to draw in yet.

As the night of the full moon approached, however, Selene knew that she would have to change her tactics. Most lycans active in the present could control their transformations, but they still had some kind of reaction to the full moon, and Selene couldn't afford to lose track of Corvin at any point around this stage. She had managed to track his daily activities easily enough so far, but she couldn't afford to take the chance that the American lycan would get away from her if he changed his tactics during the day when she couldn't follow him.

Fortunately, one advantage of Selene's focus on her role as a Death Dealer over her social status in the coven was that she had a very large bank account that was used for relatively little apart from keeping her equipment in order; even her few fancy clothes were mainly there because it was easier to appease Kraven's insistence that she join him by giving him such occasional small victories. With that in mind, Selene had done some research and decided to hire a private detective to follow Corvin during the days of the full moon, taking her time to find a suitably skilled person before she made her choice, as well as buying a burner phone so that they could talk without anyone else in the mansion being aware of it. With a suitably large amount of money on hand, Selene had called the detective's office and hired him to follow Corvin over the few days leading up to the night of the full moon. She had affirmed that she had no reason to believe that Corvin was explicitly dangerous in the sense that he wasn't attacking humans at random, but it would be best for the detective to remain at a distance and keep track of his activities from sunrise to sunset.

It had been a very involved assignment for the agency, but that was another advantage of the current time of year, as the sun rose so late and set so relatively early that they didn't have to follow Corvin for long. Selene had agreed to get in touch with the detectives an hour after sunset and an hour before sunrise, claiming that she wasn't as concerned about Corvin's nightly activities. In practical terms, she appreciated that this could still be a risk in terms of exposing mortals to their existence, but she had to know what Corvin was doing during those days.

On one level, Selene was ashamed to acknowledge that she didn't know exactly how lycans were affected by the full moon if they still lacked control of their transformations, since every lycan she tracked was an experienced enemy, but she saw no harm in taking precautions by having Corvin followed for the days immediately preceding it just in case. She could track him during the nights for most of the month without any problem, but she needed to be absolutely certain of his activities around the time of the full moon, which meant that she had to know for a fact what he did in the daylight on those days. She made it clear to the detective that he should have a man on Corvin every hour of daylight available, phrasing it in a manner that simply suggested Corvin's activities at night shouldn't concern him that the man could interpret as he wished.

The first couple of days' reports met with nothing more interesting than the news that Corvin was working a couple of morning shifts at the hospital as well as the night shift Selene had already known about. It was a surprise, but it wasn't entirely unexpected; Corvin's lycan nature would mean that he didn't have to sleep as much as a human, so he probably took on extra shifts now to make up for what he'd miss when transformed.

In a strange way, Selene had to admire that part of Corvin's life; she maintained a certain distance from humans for their own safety, but there was something commendable in how he maintained the responsibilities of his human identity.

Finally, on the night of the full moon itself, Selene received a text message on her burner that Corvin had finished a morning shift at the hospital and then spent a few hours in his apartment before leaving for a storage facility. Selene had run a search and found that Corvin had rented a storage locker in that facility for the last few months, but that didn't explain to her why he had it. On the bright side, a check of the building's schematics confirmed that there were only a couple of doors that could allow anyone to enter or exit the building, and there was no sign that Corvin had the skills to get out of a place like that without being seen, particularly given the shape he'd be in tonight. She had no idea why he was staying in a storage facility, but at least it looked like he was going to some lengths to keep himself contained on the night of the full moon.

As the sun began to set, Selene left the mansion and made her way to the storage facility; all the coven's cars were equipped with tinted windows if they had to make any urgent daytime trips, but most of the time they only went to specific locations where they could be sure of being protected from the sunlight. When she reached the storage facility, Selene called the detective, confirming that Corvin had gone inside and hadn't left yet. Once the man had been dismissed with promises of a bonus, Selene got out of the Jaguar and examined the building to confirm the accuracy of the plans she'd studied, before she quickly picked the lock and walked into the facility. She took a few moments to confirm that the interior layout matched the plans she'd found before she set off down the corridor and up the stairs towards Corvin's assigned locker.

From what Selene had seen of this place's design, she had a sneaking suspicion about what Corvin was doing here, but it was hard to imagine that she could be right. The mere idea that a lycan that young could hold down a job in the human world and still have trouble with his true self…

When she heard the faint roar from further up the stairs, Selene picked up the pace until she reached the right level, but paused outside the door to the relevant corridor to look through the glass window. Seeing no sign of anything in the corridor, she picked the lock once again and carefully made her way down it, keeping an eye on the numbers on either side of the lockers until she was close to Corvin's locker. As she heard a familiar growling, she paused a couple of doors down from the relevant locker; the doors were fairly solid from what she had seen in the plans, but she didn't want to risk the possibility that the doors couldn't withstand an enraged lycan who was having a bad reaction to the scent of a vampire…

After waiting patiently for a few minutes in the corridor, Selene was surprised to find that nothing was actually happening. The lycan that Corvin had become was still growling, but compared to the noises she'd heard from enraged lycans in the past, Corvin actually seemed to be almost… Selene hesitated to use the word 'tame' to describe a lycan, but he definitely wasn't acting like the raging monster she had come to expect.

Was it possible that Corvin was everything he seemed to be? That he really was just an American medical student whose status as a lycan had no greater impact on his life beyond him needing to lock himself up to stop himself hurting anyone else?

The idea that any lycan could be capable of that kind of selflessness flew in the face of most of what Selene had believed she knew about her enemies, but she couldn't ignore the gathering evidence.

She looked at the door to Corvin's storage locker for a moment, but soon decided to leave it for the moment; the lycan seemed tame enough at the moment, but she doubted that trying to talk to him in that state would accomplish anything.

She'd give it a couple of days for her to work out the best way to approach him, and then…


	4. The Death Dealer and the Loner

Under any other set of circumstances, when dealing with any other lycan, Selene would never have considered doing what she was about to do, but she'd spent enough time over the last month to confirm that Michael Corvin was far from a regular lycan. She didn't know why he was acting on his own or why he was working so hard to blend into life with humans, but if he wasn't a regular lycan, it would at the very least be interesting to learn the truth about why he was so different in the first place. She had kept the private detective on retainer for another day or two to make sure Michael didn't do anything too unexpected, but after she confirmed that he had just returned to his original schedule after the full moon had passed by, she had terminated her contract and paid the man for his services.

Now the only thing Selene had to do was something she would have once considered impossible; have a civil conversation with a known lycan.

More importantly, as far as she knew, she was about to have her first conversation in centuries with someone who knew nothing of the war before she came to them. She appreciated that she was at least potentially violating the Covenant, but Michael wasn't, strictly speaking, a lycan in the sense that he was fighting with them, and Selene had no intention of revealing that she was a vampire as soon as she made contact, so she felt that there were enough loopholes to justify her planned approach…

She was surprised to find that she was hoping this would work out; for the first time in as long as she could remember, she wanted to do something more to a lycan than kill it. Michael Corvin might seem like he was living an ordinary human life, but the fact that he was a _lycan_ living such a life…

* * *

Walking into his apartment, Michael shook his head as he tried to push past the fatigue of another rough day at the hospital. He genuinely believed in what he was training for, and he appreciated that he was able to make a difference to people, but when he had to take his 'condition' into account…  
  
 _God, how much longer can I keep this up_?  
  
As far as he could tell his body never showed any sign that these transformations were having some kind of long-term effect on his health, but there was no way of knowing how much longer that could last. His body was still getting older, and eventually it would reach a point where he wouldn't be able to cope with what his condition was putting him through. Maybe he'd just have a heart attack one day and be found dead in his locker the next morning, his body some twisted mix of human and wolf that would just end up being dissected as a freak unless they worked out who he was…  
  
"Good day?"  
  
Spinning around, Michael was initially prepared to be shocked at the arrival of an intruder in his apartment, but his eyes widened when he took in the speaker. It was a young woman, around his age, with pale skin and dark hair over a very form-fitting black leather outfit. She was standing against a wall with her arms folded, looking at him with a pointed expression that reinforced the intimidating posture she was definitely trying to create.  
  
"Who-?" he began.  
  
"I'm Selene," she said, in a tone that made it clear she wouldn't be telling him her surname. "I've been watching you for a while, Michael Corvin."  
  
"Uh… you have?" Michael said, wondering if denial was a worthwhile strategy.  
  
"Indeed," Selene said, giving him a brief smile. "You're a particularly remarkable lycan, Mr Corvin."  
  
"…Lycan?" Michael repeated uncertainly. "What's that?"  
  
"What you are," Selene said, raising an eyebrow with a pointed stare. "Or did you just think of yourself as a werewolf?"  
  
Michael wasn't sure if he should scream or yell at this revelation. After spending the last few months faced with a situation he couldn't understand and had no way of talking to anyone about without worrying that he'd just sound crazy, the idea that he was facing someone who actually _knew_ what he was…  
  
"How do you… know that?" he said, lost for a better response to this twist in his life.  
  
"My family were killed by lycans years ago," the woman replied. "I've been hunting them ever since."  
  
The only reason Michael didn't lash out at that comment was by reminding himself that Selene could have easily shot him the moment he walked into his apartment if she wanted him dead.  
  
"I'm… sorry," he said at last, deciding that any kind of reaction at this point was better than none.  
  
"Thank you," Selene nodded back at him.  
  
"So… not that I'm complaining about it, but I'm guessing that you're not going to kill me, so… why are you here?" Michael asked, not wanting to provoke a bad reaction but still curious about her motives.  
  
"I saw you leaving the hospital about a month ago, and realised what you were based on… well, I have a lot of experience in terms of hunting other lycans," Selene explained, with an edge to her manner that suggested to Michael she wasn't telling him everything. "I will confess that I have spent the last few weeks watching you."  
  
"You have?" Michael looked at her with new uncertainty.  
  
"Only to confirm that you weren't… well, to be blunt, I wanted to be sure that you weren't just ripping people apart when you weren't at work."  
  
"Ah," Michael winced at the imagery. "That's… a possible thing? For a… lycan?"  
  
"I've met lycans who were all too eager to tear into their enemies when they're transformed, and like I said, my own family were collateral damage when a group of lycans got hungry," Selene confirmed grimly. "Believe me, Corvin, if I thought you were anything like those lycans, we wouldn't be having this conversation."  
  
"So… what are you doing here?"  
  
"For the moment… indulging my curiosity," Selene said, taking a moment to look at him in silent contemplation as though searching for the best term.  
  
"That's it?"  
  
"Among other things," Selene said, lowering her gaze for a moment before she looked back at Michael. "You have to understand, Corvin, you basically fly in the face of most things I thought I knew about lycans. You have no interest in indulging your wolf, you go to considerable lengths to retain your human life, and you… well, to be blunt, the typical lycan would have tried to attack me the moment you realised I was a potential threat."  
  
"You?" Michael looked at her sceptically. "Uh… this isn't a sex thing, but I'm pretty sure I'm bigger than you when I… change, and the thing that scratched me-"  
  
"You were scratched?"  
  
"You didn't know that?"  
  
"Like I said, I only saw you a month ago, and I could only access so much of your personal history from before that," Selene explained, looking at him with new curiosity. "How were you… infected, on that topic?"  
  
"Car accident," Michael replied, his mood becoming immediately grimmer at the dark memory.  
  
"Car acci-?" Selene began, before her mood shifted. "That would be… the one that killed your fiancé?"  
  
"Yeah…" Michael nodded tentatively. He briefly thought about glaring at Selene for bringing up that part of his life, but the subtle sense of shame on the woman's face was enough to assure him that she understood she was on the verge of crossing a line, so he decided not to say anything. "It was… I thought I'd dreamed it after I woke up, but there was a… I guess you'd call it a lycan… in the middle of the road."  
  
"The middle of the road?"  
  
"Not normal, huh?"  
  
"They're ruthless, but they're not stupid," Selene shook her head. "It must have just been a very unfortunate accident for everyone concerned."  
  
"Yeah, 'accident'," Michael shook his head bitterly. "The thing ended up pinned between my car and another one, and its head crashed through my windscreen…"  
  
He looked at Selene with a sudden sense of curiosity. "How accurate are the movies?"  
  
"Movies?" Selene repeated.  
  
"I mean, in _Buffy_ and _Harry Potter_ werewolves were created when a werewolf bit a human; does it have to be a bite, or could a scratch do it?"  
  
"It has to be a bite," Selene confirmed.  
  
"Right… would it work if you got _scratched_ by a tooth?"  
  
"Scratched?" Selene looked thoughtfully at him for a moment. "If it was deep enough… why?"  
  
"Well, I always assumed that… like I said, the wolf's head was sticking through the windscreen after the car crash," Michael shrugged. "I figured that one of its teeth scratched me when I was trying to get away from it before I passed out, and then… well, I don't know _what_ happened to it afterwards."  
  
"You don't know?" Selene looked at him in surprise. "It didn't attack you?"  
  
"Well, I was still alive when I woke up," Michael replied with an uncertain shrug. "Like I said, I thought it was a kind of nightmare at first; people assumed that my scratched arms were just caused by the broken glass. I wasn't sure if any of it had happened, but I was still worried enough about the possibility to take precautions when the next full moon happened."  
  
"Good decision," Selene nodded at him in approval, before assuming a more curious expression. "So… you've really never harmed anyone?"  
  
"Not that I _know_ of, anyway," Michael conceded tentatively. "I tried keeping myself locked up back in America when I first worked out what had happened. I think there were a few news reports of mutilated animals or something like that a few days after I'd changed, but I never saw any sign that I'd attacked _people_ …"  
  
"Good," Selene nodded.  
  
"Uh… I get that this is a long shot, but…" Michael swallowed. "If you know about this lycan stuff… is there a cure?"  
  
"Cure?" Selene looked at him for a moment before she shook her head solemnly. "There is no cure for what you are beyond death."  
  
"Great," Michael sighed; he'd accepted that was probably the case, but it was still difficult to hear that was actually the case. "So all I've got to look forward to is getting shot by a silver bullet or having a heart attack when I'm too old to cope with what my body's going through when I'm changing…"  
  
"Too old?" Selene looked at Michael in surprise.  
  
"Yeah…" Michael looked uncertainly at her.  
  
"Michael… lycans are immortal."  
  
" _Immortal_?"  
  
"Well, they can be killed with silver weapons if the wounds aren't treated in time, but your aging has been halted from the moment you were changed," Selene clarified. "Obviously every dead lycan I know of was killed rather than dying of old age, but I haven't heard anything to suggest that natural causes are something lycans have to worry about any more."  
  
"Huh," Michael said.  
  
He appreciated that was a significant under-reaction to learning that you were apparently immortal, but he doubted there was _any_ kind of appropriate reaction to realising that you were immortal.  
  
"So… I'm not going to die because my body can't cope with these changes?"  
  
"No," Selene shook her head. "You actually have accelerated healing whether you're human or lycan; so long as you aren't injured with silver, you should be able to recover from everything."  
  
"Whoa…" Michael said, staring at his hands with a new sense of uncertainty, before he looked back at Selene. "So… if you can't cure this… can you help me control it?"  
  
"I…" Selene paused in thought for a moment before she looked more solemnly at him. "You have to understand that you're already an exception to basically everything I thought I knew about lycans, so I can't offer any promises about what I'll be able to do for you… but I'll see if I can come up with something."  
  
"…Thanks," Michael nodded at the mysterious woman in black.  
  
This was the most surreal conversation he'd ever had in his life, with the most mysterious woman he'd ever met, but in a strange way, he already felt glad that he had met her.  
  
"So… in the meantime, anything else I should know?" he asked at last. "About keeping safe, I mean?"  
  
"For the moment, do what you've been doing to keep yourself safe and protect others; keep yourself locked up during the full moon and feed yourself when appropriate. Beyond that…"  
  
Selene simply looked at him with a tentative sense of regret in her manner. "We'll see what we can do."  
  
Michael knew from the solemn expression on the woman's face that she didn't truly know what else she could do to help him, but for the moment, it still felt somewhat reassuring to know that he wasn't alone in trying to deal with this any more.


	5. Safehouse Request

If Selene had been asked, she wouldn't have been able to explain it, but for the last few days, she'd genuinely found herself enjoying Michael Corvin's company.

It was strange, but even though she'd never really thought about romance since she was rescued by Viktor, there was something about Corvin that appealed to a part of her she'd never consciously thought about. When he spoke about his work in the hospital, it was with a genuine sense that he appreciated what he was able to do for his patients, taking pleasure in saving lives when she'd grown so used to judging people by their ability to cause death. He was curious about his new state, but he always seemed to know when he was approaching a topic she didn't want to talk about when talking about lycans, and Selene in turn was starting to recognise when she was risking crossing the same lines when talking with him.

Selene would never have expected that she'd become this fond of a lycan, but everything she learnt about Michael Corvin made it clear that he was only a 'lycan' because he'd been bitten by one. He'd expressed no interest in learning more about his new species beyond what he needed to know in order to survive, and as strange as it was, Selene genuinely believed he wouldn't be a threat to her on his own accord. It was still possible that his transformed self would be a danger to someone if he couldn't work out how to control it somehow, but Selene wasn't going to judge _Michael_ because of something his more feral counterpart would do.

The story he'd told her of how he had been turned was unusual, but for the moment Selene had no reason to believe that it was anything but the truth. It actually matched up rather well with the brief reports she'd heard about lycan activity in America. With the lycan gangs there relatively disorganised compared to whatever old lycans remained over here trying to uphold Lucian's vision, it wouldn't be impossible for a random wolf to get caught in a car accident like the one Michael had described. She had to wonder how Amelia let enough lycans come together for one to change Michael under those circumstances by accident, but it wasn't hard to imagine a few cunning lycans managing to stay undercover just enough so that even Amelia could underestimate their numbers.

For the moment, as interesting as new potential lycan targets might have been under normal circumstances, Selene couldn't afford to worry about the situation over in America. She had no reason to believe Amelia or the American coven were in danger of an upsurge in lycan activity when she only had 'evidence' of one idiot, but she could be fairly confident that Michael would be in trouble if any of her more impulsive fellow Death Dealers found out about him. If she was going to help others accept that Michael was an innocent victim who had never chosen to become part of this war, she needed to help him gain proper control of his transformation. She had a tentative plan to help him find a safe environment where he could 'practice', but it would require her to share a bit more with another party than she was completely comfortable with…

She shook that thought aside. She was a loyal Death Dealer who was making a rare personal request of a close friend to protect a potential asset; there was nothing about this situation that compromised her oath or the Covenant in any way, and everyone would benefit from it in the long term. She wasn't going to ask Michael to do anything he wasn't comfortable with, but if she could help him get control of his wolf side, there were definite possibilities.

Her mind made up, she found herself standing outside Kahn's office, prepared to make the request that would at the very least change how a man she trusted saw her.

"Kahn?" she said, amazed at how anxious she suddenly felt now that the moment had come to make her request. She had faced off against transformed lycans with little fear for centuries, but the prospect of revealing any kind of personal information to someone else…

Even if she was exaggerating the extent of her association with Michael, this was still putting herself out there in an emotional manner she wasn't used to, but it was the best way to get help without telling anyone something they couldn't know too soon.

"Selene?" Kahn stood up from his desk to look at her curiously. "Is something wrong?"

"Not… _wrong_ , exactly," Selene said, hesitating for a moment before she fully entered Kahn's office and closed the door behind her, looking firmly at the Death Dealer's official leader. "Kahn… do you trust me?"

"Trust you?" Kahn looked at her incredulously. "Selene, how can you even-?"

"Kahn, this is serious," Selene looked solemnly at him. "This isn't just asking you to trust me in the field to save your life. This is asking you to trust me when I tell you that, even if my actions seem unusual or strange, I would never do _anything_ to break the Covenant or jeopardise the secrets of the coven."

"…All right," Kahn looked tentatively at Selene. "I can't imagine why you'd think I'd ever assume something like that of you… but I trust you."

"Thank you," Selene nodded at him, before she gave her friend a tentative smile, hoping that he would interpret her next words the right way. "I've… met someone."

"Met someone?" Kahn repeated in confusion, before his eyes widened in understanding and an incredulous grin split his normally stoic face. " _You_ have _met someone_?"

"All right, there's no need to make _that_ big a deal about it," Selene shrugged self-consciously, cursing herself for sounding so uncomfortable. "Just because I think Kraven's a pig doesn't mean I'm completely against the idea of… _something_ , you know…"

"True, but after all these centuries?" Kahn observed, still grinning at her. "I knew you'd had your flings to vent, but the idea that you _met someone_? Who is…?"

His voice trailed off as he looked at her with a new sense of understanding. "He's human, isn't he?"

"A situation that is not without precedent, as you know-"

"I get that, but it's still… I mean, it's a surprise that you'd connect with someone enough to even _say_ something like that…" Kahn shook his head with a smile. "How did you end up meeting a human?"

"It's… still early, but I like him," Selene said with an awkward shrug. "I saw him when I was on surveillance at the hospital, thought that he might have something to tell me about something that turned out to be a dead end, and ended up… well, we started talking, and from there…"

"Things just happened, right?" Kahn smiled at her in approval before he looked more serious. "Anyway, you're not here just to tell me about your romantic life; what's this all about?"

"Well… for various reasons, Michael isn't interested in becoming one of us yet, but I would like to be certain that he's got somewhere safe to go if things… become difficult," Selene said; she obviously couldn't tell Kahn that Michael was a lycan, but she also didn't want to directly lie to him if she could help it. "If this goes beyond what you're willing to do, just say the word and we can pretend none of this ever happened, but if you…"

"Selene," Kahn cut her off with a warm smile. "I know you'd never ask me to betray the coven directly, so just tell me what you want and I'll see what I can do."

"A private safehouse."

"A private safehouse?" Kahn repeated in surprise.

"I know that they're not always easy to set up, but it would be… good… to know that Michael has somewhere safe to go if the wrong people find out about him," Selene explained tentatively. "We both know that Kraven would take it personally if he knew that I actually preferred someone else over him; I'm going to keep this quiet for now, but in case something happens before I'm ready… well, it would be good to know Michael has somewhere safe to go so we don't have to force him into anything."

"I see," Kahn said, his smile shifting as he looked more seriously at her. "You realise that I'm officially obligated to keep the coven in the loop about any and all safehouses in the area in case we ever need them for _anything_?"

"I recognise that."

"And it would cost a considerable amount to set up a safehouse that only you and I know the location of?"

"I'm willing to contribute to the funding myself-"

"Which is why I'll do it."

"You will?" Selene was genuinely surprised that Kahn had agreed that quickly.

"Selene, you've never made a personal request like this from _anyone_ in the coven as far as I remember," Kahn explained with a reassuring smile. "If you're going against that for this man, he _must_ be special to you, and if you want to be sure he's safe… well, I might be loyal to Viktor, but I'm not going to turn down a chance to play a discreet little 'trick' on Kraven."

"Thank you," Selene smiled at Kahn.

"Just give me a couple of weeks; I've got a couple of sites I've been keeping in reserve for the right opportunity to expand our local resources. Is there anything in particular I should include?"

"A secure panic room, an armoury, and local surveillance," Selene affirmed. "Anything else I can sort out myself, and I would be willing to cover the cost."

"Shouldn't be too difficult if I'm careful," Kahn nodded at her. "I'll let you know when it's ready."

"Thanks again, Kahn," Selene smiled before she left her friend, heading to the range for a bit of target practice before her nightly patrol.

She'd partly expected that Kahn would accept her cover story, mainly due to the relative implausibility of the idea that she would ever associate with a lycan beyond killing it, but the thing that surprised her most was just how easy it had been to sell her cover story to Kahn. She'd needed to imply that her interest in Michael went beyond a friendly, semi-professional relationship to justify her level of interest without attracting too many questions about him, but when she actually started talking about it…

The strangest thing about it all was that, when she actually started talking about the idea of her and Michael that way, it actually didn't seem _that_ strange. As much as she had enjoyed his company so far, she actually wouldn't be _that_ adverse to the idea of… taking things further…

She pushed that thought to the back of her mind almost as soon as it had occurred to her. Just because she was helping Michael stay safe from himself didn't mean that there could be anything more between them than their current professional dynamic.

He was a _lycan_ , for the Coven's sake; just because she recognised that he didn't mean her harm didn't mean that she was… _attracted_ to him! She was just helping him now so that he could be a useful asset later; there were too many possibilities offered by the idea of having an inside man within the lycans themselves.

She ignored the nagging voice in the back of her mind that reminded her that she didn't need to have some sick attraction to the wolf to appreciate the man she'd been getting to know these last few weeks…


	6. A Mournful Anniversary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reference will be made here to a Death Dealer called Nathaniel, who actually did appear in the films. The novelisation identified Nathaniel as the name of one of Selene's colleagues during the shoot-out in the subway station in the opening scene of the first movie, and he was actually the vampire Raze killed when he pursued the aforementioned lycan into the tunnels. The novelisation mentioned that Nathaniel had a few 'nods with history' in the sense that he had met various famous figures from history, such as an encounter with John Milton and a time that he dabbled in archaeology with Howard Carter in Egypt, so he seemed an appropriate choice for this particular twist.

The more time Michael spent with Selene, the more uncertain he was about how they were getting along in the first place. He appreciated that they hadn't exactly spent much leisure time together, but it had been weeks since they'd met and he still knew almost nothing about her beyond that her family had been killed by lycans and she'd spent her life hunting them down in revenge.

It wasn't like he didn't trust her; everything Selene had told him about his new lycan heritage so far had been fascinating, even if he privately found himself taking everything with a grain of salt considering what she'd told him about her own history with the werewolves. They still hadn't been able to do much about the possibility of him getting better control over his transformations, so he'd spent another couple of nights back in his storage locker, but Michael appreciated that she had volunteered to cover some of the costs for his rent of that particular locker in the absence of a better solution.

Right now, he was using a rare non-full-moon-related day off to deal with a more human pain; the second anniversary of Sam's death. He'd resisted the temptation to just go to a bar and drink away his sorrows, but he knew that he wouldn't be fit to work on this date, so he'd already taken the precaution of requesting the day off last month, and was just grateful nothing big had happened that might have forced him to stay on-call. He'd still ended up sleeping a fair portion of the day away just because he'd been so exhausted after his last night shift, but he was ready for his private memorial.

A glass of blood and a rare steak on a tray in front of him, Michael sat down on his couch and turned on the DVD he'd rented from a nearby shop, smiling thoughtfully as the screen displayed that strange drone thing searching through the wreck of the _Titanic_.

Maybe watching a film about a doomed romance to remember his dead fiancé would seem strange to outsiders, but Sam had always liked the film ever since it came out, and he liked to think that she wouldn't want him to forget what she'd loved just because she wasn't there any more. If he wanted to remember her, wasn't it better to focus on what she'd enjoyed in life rather than fixate on memories relating to her death?

As the film progressed, Michael let the story just wash over him for the first few minutes, taking in the moment when that archaeologist found the vault and the sketch of young Rose, but then he heard a sound from the side just as old Rose was looking over the drawing on the expedition's boat. He paused the DVD and turned to the source of the sound, only to find himself looking at Selene standing in the door of his small living room.

"What are you watching?" she asked, looking curiously at the screen.

"Uh… _Titanic_ ," Michael said, suddenly embarrassed that the woman who'd heard him howling in a storage locker had caught him watching a romantic film. "It was one of Sam's favourites, and since this is…"

"The anniversary of her death," Selene said, curiosity shifting to sympathy. "And the anniversary of the day you-"

"I… don't think of it that way," Michael cut her off, rubbing the scratch on his arm that he had tentatively identified as the wound responsible for his transformation. "I mean, I get that that's when it happened, but it's not like I knew that anything else had happened until a few weeks later; I tend to think of the day I first… changed… as the _actual_ anniversary…"

"I understand," Selene nodded in understanding, before she looked at the screen. " _Titanic_ … after the ship?"

"Yeah, it's set on the _Titanic_ itself, looking at…" Michael trailed off as he took in her reaction. "You haven't seen it, have you?"

"I don't really have much time for the cinema in my line of work," Selene said, looking at the screen with new curiosity. "But I admit… I have heard about the ship…"

"Really?"

"You have to keep in mind that my organisation have… we've had some history hunting lycans that goes beyond my own membership," Selene explained, with what Michael could almost swear was a smile on her face; at the very least the corners of her mouth were turned up. "I… I believe that one of our members was actually on the _Titanic_ when it sank; he… left written accounts of his experience-"

"He?" Michael looked at her in surprise. "You have a written account of a _guy_ who survived the _Titanic_?"

"He was left in the sea after it sank, was picked up by a returning lifeboat, and spent the next couple of days huddled up in a mass of blankets to cope with the hypothermia," Selene explained, before she tentatively indicated the other half of Michael's couch. "If you wouldn't mind…?"

"Uh… no problem," Michael said, realising what she was suggesting. It was a bit strange to suddenly have to adjust his plans to include someone else in his planned private viewing of the film, but it wasn't like Selene was being pushy about it, and he had to admit that he wouldn't mind having someone else here…

* * *

As she settled in on the couch beside Michael, Selene wasn't sure why she was doing this beyond casual curiosity at the opportunity. She hadn't been entirely lying about the fact that she'd heard the tale of the _Titanic_ from another Death Dealer; she'd just bent the truth a bit to avoid mentioning that Nathaniel had told her about his experience after the fact rather than her reading a report he'd written at the time.  
  
When Amelia had still been working on establishing the vampires' influence in America, Nathaniel had booked passage on the _Titanic_ to check out some parts of the country himself. Spending a few days on a ship like the _Titanic_ was a difficult prospect at the time, considering the limited opportunities to feed without giving away their nature, but he'd brought a suitcase with blood bags kept in ice, which he could have theoretically lived on discreetly for the whole voyage. When the ship had to be evacuated, Nathaniel had obviously failed to get on one of the lifeboats when it was being deployed, but had managed to keep swimming after the ship sank, gorging himself on a few of the older passengers who could never have survived that cold water until the lifeboats came back for him. He'd spent the next couple of days on the lifeboats and the _Carpathia_ hiding from the sun under blankets, but his gorging experience had allowed him to make it to New York without needing to feed on any of the other survivors. It had been easy enough for Nathaniel to claim that he was sick if anyone wondered at him going around wrapped in the blankets, and once the ship had arrived in America it had been easy enough for him to sneak off after the sun went down and most of the other passengers had left.  
  
However, once Nathaniel had managed to make contact with Amelia's coven, with most of his weapons lost, even with the American vampires providing him with new resources, his search of America had been relatively unsatisfactory, and he'd returned to Europe without anything particular to report. His report had just skimmed over the actual sinking, considering his own fondness for humans, but now that Michael had mentioned the contents of the film, Selene was suddenly curious to see the human perspective on that event, even if most of the direct witnesses were dead by now.  
  
"Could you… give me a bit of context?" she asked. She felt embarrassed to be asking that kind of question, but if this film was important to Michael, she wasn't going to ask him to start it all over again if he didn't have to. "I mean, I assume this is about specific people rather than just the sinking?"  
  
"Basically, this archaeologist has been looking for a rare blue diamond, the Heart of the Ocean, that was supposed to be on the _Titanic_ when it sank, and he found a sketch in a vault that was made on the night the ship sank of a woman wearing the diamond," Michael explained. "An old woman saw a news report about it and called the ship to reveal that she was the woman in the picture; she came out to the archaeologist's ship to tell her story, and has just started talking about her experience on the _Titanic_."  
  
"I see," Selene said, as the film began to play again, an old woman's voice talking about the _Titanic_ before a figure in a white dress and a large purple hat stepped out of a car, followed by a young man of around her age and an older woman who was likely the girl's mother. "I assume that's her?"  
  
"Yeah, that's Rose," Michael nodded, before he fell silent as the film continued. Listening to the old woman's comments on how _Titanic_ was basically a prison ship taking her to an unwanted marriage, Selene was suddenly struck by the thought of Kraven's own unwanted interest in her. She might be more willing to tell Kraven to leave her alone, but she could appreciate that such an approach wouldn't be practical for a human woman of the era when _Titanic_ had set sell. When Rose ran for the back of the ship and almost jumped into the sea, Selene was surprised to find herself feeling anxious in the moment before Jack helped pull Rose back to safety, but later felt a surprising sense of sympathy as Rose spoke with Jack about why she'd been driven to such a point.  
  
Selene couldn't imagine considering suicide as an option herself, but faced with a whole society full of hypocrites who just ignored her suffering in favour of their own views, she could see why Rose preferred Jack's simple honesty and appreciation for life over the wealth everyone else she'd ever met had to offer. That idea was only further reinforced when Jack attended that first-class dinner party and then took Rose down to the lower decks, Rose having genuine fun among third-class where she just seemed to be tolerating the talk at the upper-class party.  
  
The context was different, but it reminded Selene of her own attitude when she was forced to deal with some of the coven's upper-class parties rather than get out and hunt lycans; she was more at home out on the streets than rubbing elbows with the elite. Seeing the way Hockley tried to order Rose to go along with his ambitions and plans inspired a surprising sense of sympathy with Selene. Obviously Kraven would never dare to act that way around her compared to how Cal felt free to treat Rose that way, but Kraven would certainly have expressed those sentiments if he thought he could get away with it.  
  
As Rose joined Jack at the front of the ship, and Jack guided her into position on the bow with her arms outstretched, Selene was suddenly struck by the thought that this was very similar to what Michael was doing for her, giving her a new experience she'd never have considered before…  
  
She forced that thought down quickly even before Rose and Jack kissed; the context of the situation was drastically different. She was just spending time with Michael to help him not be a danger to other people and the possibility of convincing him to be an inside man against future lycan operations; the fact that she liked him was… well, it wasn't important.  
  
Even after the 'future' Rose confirmed that they were now on the night of the sinking, Selene was surprised to find that she'd almost forgotten that fact as she became caught up in Jack and Rose's time on the ship, ranging from Jack making that sketch of Rose to their sexual experience in the back of the car. When Cal's plan to frame Jack for theft became clear, Selene's tentative comparison of him to Kraven became more blatant; Kraven wouldn't have the nerve to do something like that to her as any kind of blackmail, but he would definitely try to hurt or control her friends if he thought it would put her in his power.  
  
The shift to Thomas Andrews discussing the fate of _Titanic_ was unexpected at first, but Selene had to admire the acting in that scene. Even knowing that she was just watching actors, it was surprisingly easy to see the moment when all concerned parties realised that _Titanic_ was destined to sink, no matter what they tried to do to cope with it.  
  
When the narrative shifted back to Rose, Selene wondered briefly at Rose's decision to stay on a sinking ship for the sake of a man she'd only met a few days ago, but she had to admire the determination behind the young woman's actions even if Selene wasn't sure she could understand the emotional motivation herself. As Rose ran through the _Titanic_ to find Jack, Selene found herself wondering just how many of these little moments had been true examples of what had taken place on the ship; she recalled Nathaniel mentioning the musicians playing as the ship had sunk, but she had to wonder if anyone would have done what Rose and Jack did when they saved that little boy…  
  
As the last of the lifeboats left the _Titanic_ , Selene was once again struck by the scale of the tragedy as she saw so many people left on the still-sinking. It wasn't a total surprise that Cal found a way off even after losing the diamond to Rose, but Selene found it hard to worry about that little girl she didn't even know the name of when her mind was focused on Captain Smith and Thomas Andrews, each man silently accepting their perceived punishment to go down with the ship for a failure that neither could have anticipated the scale of. Even if she hadn't particularly registered Fabrizio beyond his connection to Jack, Selene still winced when she saw him get crushed by the fallen funnel, and watched with a certain horror as the rear of _Titanic_ briefly fell down onto some of the already-swimming passengers before it sank properly.  
  
The film didn't focus on the drowning bodies in depth, but recalling Nathaniel's story of those events, she could easily imagine how it must have felt, so many people freezing to death around them, help such a relatively short distance away even if it was impossible for them to reach it…  
  
By the time a boat came back for any survivors, Selene was surprised to find herself genuinely moved when Rose realises that Jack had frozen to death. She wasn't entirely sure if the wooden panel Rose was on would have been able to support Jack or not if he'd been careful, but she supposed that she could admire Jack's resolve to give his life for another, particularly when it had actually paid off.  
  
As the film returned to the present, Selene was surprised at the sudden need to blink as she took in the full scope of the film she'd just watched. She hadn't actually cried since she'd lost her family to the lycans, and she wasn't about to break that 'streak' over something that she knew wasn't real, but seeing how Rose had found something she'd never known, only to lose it…  
  
Selene would have to be made of stone not to feel sad about what had happened to her, even if she wasn't real.  
  
The moment when Rose had tossed the diamond over the edge of the boat surprised Selene for various reasons, but when she thought about it, it said a great deal about Rose's character. She wouldn't have been able to sell the diamond without being accused of its theft or giving away to Cal that she had survived, but she had kept it as a memento of those days on _Titanic_ , and she was now returning the diamond to the ship that had defined her life for so long, back where it was meant to be.  
  
The brief glimpse of the photographs in Rose's room affirmed that she had done what she had promised Jack and found a way to make her life count, but Selene didn't have time to think on that before the film shifted to the wreckage of the _Titanic_ , and then transitioned from the wreck back to the ship as it had been when it set out. As the camera panned through the gathered faces of the victims of the disaster, Selene wasn't entirely surprised to see Jack standing at the clock, but she wasn't sure how to react to the sight of Rose, young once again, walking up to Jack and kissing him, the crowd around them applauding the reunion as the screen faded to black. When the credits started to play, Selene simply sat for a while and listened to the song, unused to thinking about music as anything more than a distraction but amazed to find herself understanding this song in a way she'd never felt before.  
  
 _Every night in my dreams…_  
  
 _Love can touch us one time_ …  
  
 _Near, far, wherever you are,_  
  
 _I believe that the heart does go on_ …  
  
"Gets me every time," Michael's voice broke into Selene's thoughts as he turned off the film, looking at her with a tentative smile even as his eyes glistened with unshed tears.  
  
"I… I can see that…" Selene nodded, looking tentatively over at Michael. "This was… her favourite? Even when it ended like that…?"  
  
"Sam always said that the film wasn't about the fact that it had a sad ending," Michael explained. "It was about the fact that Jack taught Rose to make her life _count_ ; she didn't have to be trapped or held back by society's expectations any more, but could just… be whatever she wanted to be, seize what was important, open herself up to people…"  
  
"Yes…" Selene nodded as she looked at the DVD box lying near the television, suddenly lost in thoughts she'd never considered before Michael came into her life.  
  
It probably wouldn't happen for a while even with the lycans' rapidly-depleting numbers, but what would she do with herself when Michael was the last lycan left? She'd spent so long fighting to avenge her family, but aside from a few friends such as Kahn, did she have any kind of life outside of her mission of vengeance?  
  
Looking at Rose's face on the box, Selene suddenly felt as though she understood the other woman even more. The only difference between them was that Selene liked the life she was 'trapped' in where Rose had wanted to get away from everything before she met Jack, but did it really matter when neither she or Rose knew what they would do if they didn't have this life?  
  
As she shot a discreet glance at Michael, staring wistfully at the screen as it returned to the main menu, lost in memory of a woman Selene would never know, the vampire found herself wondering if he could be 'her' Jack


	7. The Safehouse

When Michael received the text message asking for him to meet Selene at a certain address, he wasn't sure what to expect from it. He liked to think he and the mysterious woman had become some kind of friends, but it was still a change for her to arrange a meeting place rather than just show up at his apartment to talk with him about something.

Still, when she was the best chance he had at regaining any kind of normality in his life beyond his job, he wasn't about to question her when she had done a good job so far. He was saving money on maintaining the storage locker and clothes now that he didn't have to worry about covering the rent by himself or replacing his clothes (even if he wondered how she got in and out of the building without being seen), and a couple of her meditation techniques had stopped the change feeling quite as painful even if he still couldn't stay in control once he was the wolf.

It had taken a couple of days for him to arrange a suitable meeting time for him to get to the address in question, but he was grateful that Selene didn't mind about the night-time visits that seemed to have become part of their schedule. Ever since his change, he might need less sleep, but even with his predominantly night shifts at the hospital he still preferred to leave the days when he felt alert enough to walk around his new home city and take in the sights.

It might seem like just superstition, but on some level, he felt as though he had to keep anything relating to his werewolf/lycan/whatever heritage restricted to the night, as though it would just be easier for him to accept this if he didn't have to face it in the light of day. He hadn't voiced it directly, and Selene always seemed to prefer meeting at night anyway, but he had to wonder what he'd do if she ever proposed a daylight rendezvous…

He forced down the part of his mind that tried to remind him that he might actually like the fact that he had a beautiful woman as basically his exclusive companion at night. They might have talked a bit and watched a film together, but he didn't exactly know that much about Selene beyond that lycans had killed her family, and if she'd been young enough when that happened to train up to the point where she could face what he became and _live_ …

Shaking his head at how he'd let his mind drift, he glanced at the map he'd managed to print out to confirm that he was at the right address. Selene's message had directed him to what looked like another apartment building, but where he liked to think of his building as having character, this one looked like it was just a few bad storms away from being declared outright derelict. Cautiously, Michael opened the door, and was relieved to find that the immediate interior looked a bit more solid than the exterior had, heading up the stairs to the top level. He was just about to start looking around when a door opened and Selene walked out.

"You're here," she nodded at him.

"Uh… yeah," Michael nodded tentatively, hoping that his next question wouldn't offend her. "So… is this your place?"

"Actually, it's essentially _our_ place."

"Ours?" Michael looked at her in surprise, fighting down the strange moment of pleasure he felt at the initial idea; he knew that Selene couldn't mean they were literally going to move in together…

"Look," Selene said, opening the door and standing aside to let him in. Walking past the leather-clad woman, Michael wasn't sure if he should feel impressed or subdued. On first glance, there wasn't much in the apartment, which included what looked like some kind of laboratory in an open area of a large room that looked like a lounge, judging by the couch and the television opposite. However, as Michael looked around, he noticed a couple of additional doors in the walls that he didn't immediately understand until he registered that the nearest door looked significantly newer than the others.

"Uh… is this _entire_ floor one flat?" he looked at Selene in surprise.

"The entire upper level was converted for our purposes."

"Our purposes?"

"To be exact," Selene added as she opened one of the new-looking doors, "this is your new transformation room."

Michael was about to ask what she meant when he stopped to take in the room on the other side of the door. It had to be at least the size of the other half of this floor of the building, but without any windows, and the walls clearly lined with some kind of metal. Michael was surprised to see a couple of holes in the ceiling, as though something had been removed when the rest of the place appeared completely finished, but he had a feeling he wouldn't like the answer to any questions he might ask about that detail. Checking the room interior, he wasn't entirely surprised to see no sign of a handle on this side of the door; if this was to be his 'transformation room', it wouldn't exactly help keep him locked up if the wolf had any opportunity to open it.

"…Looks secure," he decided to say, before he looked back at Selene. "How did you set this up?"

"My people have safehouses scattered all over the city in case we need to interrogate or examine lycans rather than just kill them," Selene explained. "The head of our… security team… owes me a favour or two, so I was able to arrange for this safehouse to be constructed basically 'off the books'."

"Which means… nobody else knows about this place?" Michael looked at her in surprise.

"Only myself and Kahn, and he won't tell anyone," Selene nodded. "As far as he knows, I just requested this place so that I would have a private place for us to meet; I told him nothing about what you are."

"And he'll accept that?"

"Like I said, what you are goes against basically everything I believed I knew about lycans; Kahn has no reason to believe I would ever do anything like this for a lycan, so the idea won't occur to him."

"But he'd believe that you want a private place just to… be with me?" Michael asked, hoping he'd interpreted her explanation correctly.

"The current head of our operations in Budapest has a long-standing… obsession with me," Selene said, her lip curling in a manner that made it clear she didn't want to discuss that situation any further. "If he knew that I was spending any time with a man for reasons other than hunting lycans… well, let's just say it wouldn't be good for your health."

"Ah," Michael observed, deciding not to overthink that particular warning. "Not a nice guy?"

"He's been riding on his reputation from a victory he achieved… a long time ago, and since then I'd be surprised if he's done anything more than attend parties and buy fancy clothes."

"So it's all about him and what he wants rather than actually doing anything to help your campaign, huh?" Michael replied, smiling slightly at the thought of some apparent arrogant rich prick trying to win Selene over with money. "Yeah, I can see why you wouldn't like a guy like that."

Granted, he didn't think that he would have a serious… _chance_ with her- if he was interested in anything like that- but the difference was that he wasn't going to force his attentions where they weren't wanted.

"Quite," Selene said, a bitter edge to her voice before she smiled and continued her explanation. "In any case, my associates and I have used rooms like this to keep lycans contained during the full moon in the past; I can safely confirm that even if your wolf _truly_ loses its temper, it's impossible for you to do enough damage to break out of that room before the sun rises."

"I… see," Michael said, taking in the transformation room one last time before he walked out of the room and turned his attention back to taking in the rest of the flat. There was a computer set up in the area he'd identified as the 'laboratory', along with a few test tubes and a couple of devices that put him in mind of the medical testing equipment used for analysing biological samples, but it generally looked rather basic. "Is this it?"

"Kahn decided it was easier to put this all together if he just focused on providing the bare essentials," Selene explained. "I picked up a few items like the television after he confirmed it was complete, and he's still going to need to provide me with contact details to set up the security system properly, but I thought that you would prefer to help me… decorate, considering that you're the one this place was created for."

"…Thanks," Michael said. Walking further into the flat to take it all in, he wasn't entirely surprised to find a cupboard with a large collection of weapons in it; considering Selene's history, it made sense that she'd make sure any place she might be staying would be able to properly defend itself. There were a couple of bedrooms (Michael refused to feel disappointed that there were two separate rooms), a basic bathroom, and a few books and a desk in a small room that he immediately thought of as a 'study'.

"Looks good," he glanced back at Selene. "I… well, thanks,"

"You're welcome," Selene nodded, before she indicated the television. "In the meantime… if you have time, shall we watch another film?"

"Another?" Michael looked at her with a smile he couldn't entirely supress.

"If you don't… well, it just struck me after we saw _Titanic_ that I haven't done anything just for _fun_ for… well, it's been a while," Selene said, looking surprisingly tentative for the strong woman Michael had become used to. "I rented a film that I thought looked… amusing…"

Looking back at the television, Michael saw the rental DVD lying alongside it- the same shop he'd used when he rented _Titanic_ , he noted- and opened the box to look at the contents.

" _The Mask_?" he looked back at Selene with a smile.

"It seemed… unconventional," Selene shrugged. "A way of just… getting away from it all for a while, you know?"

"Yeah, I've seen it a while back; it's pretty good," Michael nodded at her. "If you've got the time, I'm up for it if you are."

It wasn't a conventional 'date movie', even if Michael dared to consider what he was doing with Selene any kind of dating, but considering that he was a werewolf and she was a werewolf hunter, surely they deserved a chance to watch something at least a bit funny?


	8. Two Views

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In advance, I have a few ideas for what Michael and Selene will get up to before we get to the main plot of the first film, but if anyone has any suggestions or ideas they want to pitch, feel free to let me know and I'll give them due thought; you never know what will inspire.

Kraven had no idea what was going on with Selene these days.

He appreciated that he didn't always understand her at the best of times- why the woman _enjoyed_ going out every night to fight lycans rather than appreciating the status she would gain as his partner he would never comprehend- but recently even what little he thought he understood about her seemed to have been thrown out of the window. Where it used to be hard to get Selene to do anything _but_ go on patrol for any recent lycan sightings, in the last few weeks she had been apparently taking nights off to go out into the city for reasons he hadn't been able to find out.

He didn't think that she knew anything about his current association with Lucian- if there was any evidence of that, she would almost certainly have tried to use it to expose his current plans- but he was certain that something about Selene had changed recently. He only maintained a general awareness of the patrol patterns of most of the Death Dealers, beyond making sure they never went too close to any territory that Lucian had identified as his own, but he took care to keep track of when Selene was on duty, and she had _definitely_ been going out on a few dates when he was sure she wasn't scheduled to do anything.

The problem lay in how he could find out what she was truly up to without pushing his luck too far. Ordering her to tell him would give away the fact that he had some reason to be concerned about what she was doing outside of patrols, and he couldn't use the excuse that she was potentially jeopardising their activities without risking questions about why he was so concerned about that risk in the first place, considering the efforts he and Lucian had gone to in order to be discreet about the growing lycan presence in the city.

He greatly preferred the benefits of his current position as a relatively removed 'administrator' to the hazards of fieldwork, but this was the first time in several decades that he regretted withdrawing from a more active role in the Death Dealers. He didn't doubt that he had their obedience, but he didn't have the social contacts necessary to learn exactly what Selene was up to without tipping the rest of the coven off that he was concerned. He recognised that his interest in her wasn't unknown, but the last thing he wanted was to make anyone else think that he was some desperate waste so pathetically eager to get the attention of one girl.

Unable to calm his mind enough to focus even on his current companion in the bed, Kraven finally put the current female out of his mind as a bad effort, shoving her to the side and getting out of the bed. He shrugged on pyjama trousers and a robe and walked out of the room, with some half-formed thought of grabbing a drink from the kitchen, only to be surprised when he found Selene in the corridor, wearing casual clothing that was almost more dramatic than her usual Death Dealer leathers. The dark leather jacket she wore bore some similarities to her usual attire on her patrols, but the sight of her in a white shirt and dark blue jeans was a particularly bizarre sight to him.

"Selene?" he said, feeling a need to confirm what he was looking at. "Is… where are you going?"

"I'm going out."

"You," Kraven looked sceptically at her. " _You_ are 'going out'."

"Is there a problem with that?"

"There is if you're not available when we need you-"

"In which case Kahn has my number and can call me if something comes up that urgently requires my attention," Selene shrugged, before she fixed him with a grim stare. "The last time I checked I was still entitled to _some_ free time when I'm not on duty; there's nothing wrong with that. If you don't like the way I do things, Kraven?" Selene paused to give him a strangely exaggerated smile. "Somebody stop me."

Kraven could only stare at her in confusion at that statement, trying to work out where she had come up with such an odd turn of phrase. If he didn't know that Selene didn't really do anything for entertainment, he could have sworn that she had just been quoting something…

"Well, I'm off," Selene said, nodding at him in brisk understanding before she turned and walked down the corridor, leaving Kraven staring after her in confusion.

The most frustrating thing about Selene's observation was that he couldn't deny that she'd made a valid point. He might have been subtly encouraging Selene to try more leisurely pursuits in the hopes that she'd do them with _him_ , but he didn't exactly have the authority to make her do anything outside of patrol.

He couldn't even rely on his planned seduction efforts; if he hadn't been able to win her over so far, he was just going to have even _more_ trouble with that plan when she was doing something he didn't know about and had no way to compensate for.

Having her on side would make the transition of power so much simpler, but she was so set in her own vendetta that he knew he could never make her accept his vision until there was no alternative available…

* * *

Had Selene or Kraven looked around a corner a short way down the corridor, they would have realised that they weren't as alone as they believed. Listening to the coven's current leader and its best warrior, Kahn had found himself privately cheering for the way Selene had neatly dismissed Kraven before going out to whatever she was doing.  
  
He might respect Viktor's decision to put Kraven in charge of the coven in his absence, but he wasn't blind to the problems with Kraven's way of doing things. The man was so focused on ensuring his own power and status that he rarely paid much attention to the Death Dealers' activities except for when he was issuing specific orders, even if most of the time Kahn tolerated his little power plays because he didn't care that much about the politics himself.  
  
That said, when he had heard Selene and Kraven talking, he had to confess that he'd been left with a few questions himself. Even since he'd set up that safehouse for Selene and her new partner, he'd asked around the other Death Dealers as much as he could without attracting too much attention, but it didn't take long to confirm that nobody else even know that Selene had met anyone, never mind had any reason to believe that there was someone in her life.  
  
Kahn would like to think that he and Selene were good friends, but he couldn't help but feel hurt that she was keeping such a significant secret from him. He recognised that she must at least feel that she had a good reason for keeping her relationship secret, and he would never object to anything that made her happy, but the fact that she felt that she had to keep everything about it secret from him even after he'd helped her set up that safehouse…  
  
He suddenly found himself remembering Selene's words when she'd made that original request, and told himself not to keep worrying about this relatively minor detail. For all his concerns and questions, Kahn trusted her not to betray the coven or her fellow Death Dealers; Selene's commitment to the war had been unquestioned for as long as he'd known her, and the only reason she wasn't a higher rank was that she enjoyed being in the field too much.  
  
There was nothing wrong with Selene wanting some privacy after so long being dedicated to the mission, and Kahn could appreciate that Kraven's interest in her gave her a reason to want to protect her new lover.  
  
He just wished that he could get over his secret pain that Selene didn't trust _him_ enough to tell him the truth; didn't the secret safehouse prove that he could be trusted…?  
  
 _What secret could she be keeping that would be so terrible to tell_ …?


	9. Changing in Lockdown

It was strange for Selene to admit it even to herself, but she actually missed how she didn't have much of a choice in her current attire.

She would deny it if she had to explain it to anybody else, but she had enjoyed the chance to actually have something to do on her days off for a change. She acknowledged that she'd started out following Michael just because she wanted to find another lycan nest, but since she'd started talking to him, she'd been surprised to find herself genuinely enjoying his company. She'd never truly abandon the war so long as her people needed her, but with Michael to inspire her, she'd found herself expanding her interests and seeking out more human activities than she'd ever considered before.

Unfortunately, right now she was in the safehouse for a more practical and potentially dangerous purpose; Michael was going to transform tonight, and she had to be there to make sure he didn't break out and hurt anybody.

She had faith that Kahn's efforts would have made sure that the room could hold a transformed lycan, but with Michael's first transformation since the safehouse had become available, it would have been irresponsible not to take every precaution. Michael had managed to take the previous day off work, and Selene had been able to borrow one of the mansion's cars with specially-tinted windows to get here before sunset, but even with the delays caused by the afternoon traffic she'd forgotten to take into account, they'd still arrived here with time to spare before the moon rose.

"How is it the moon still affects me even when I'm inside?" Michael mused as they stood in the safehouse flat. "I mean, in most of the movies it only happens when the wolf _sees_ the moon… or the moonlight hits the wolf, anyway…"

"The popular theory is that the rising of the moon triggers some side-effect in the water in the human body that causes certain chemicals to rise and shift inside the lycans to trigger the transformation," Selene explained. "Obviously it's not something we can easily analyse even if we managed to capture a lycan in time to study their body chemistry as they change, but it makes as much sense as anything."

"And the older ones can control that change to do it whenever they want," Michael nodded at her in understanding before his expression became less certain. "So I get that you have faith in the guy who made this room, but are you _sure_ that you can't just… drug me or something to keep me human?"

"It wouldn't work," Selene shook her head. "Lycan physiology is too advanced to be affected by simple drugs; the amount we'd need to do anything to you would actually start threatening your life."

"And you're certain of that?"

"The… my associates have experimented with all possible means of taking down lycans as technology developed, and their reaction to silver is still the most consistent weakness they have," Selene affirmed. "There are rumours that the lycans themselves have been working on enzymes to help their new recruits retain their human sides if they risk transforming in a public location, but to be frank, we would never be able to hold any lycan prisoner long enough to test that theory ourselves."

"They wouldn't let you find a way to do something like that to them, huh?"

"To say the least. And before you ask, I'm not a scientist myself and I don't know anyone with the necessary biological expertise that I would trust enough to tell about you just yet, so we can't work out if there's actually a way to do that. Once we have more evidence that you're not dangerous, I will look into it, but right now anybody I might talk to would just see you as a useful specimen."

"Right," Michael said, an uncomfortable expression on his face before he looked more directly at Selene. "Is it harsh to say your group is a bit… obsessive?"

"Considering the potential danger of a rampaging lycan, we often have to be fast and decisive," Selene observed solemnly. "In any case, right now the best alternative I could offer to this room is shooting you in the arm or something else non-fatal that might retard your body's transformation, but there's the possibility of long-term damage to your system if we do that on a regular basis."

"…Yeah, let's not do that."

"Quite," Selene nodded, before she indicated the door to the secure room. "I appreciate that this is basically just trading one cell for another, but I can offer you my assurances that you won't break out of this one, and I'll be there to keep you contained if anything does go wrong."

"Without killing me, right?" Michael smiled tentatively at her.

"I know a trick or two to put you down at least until sunrise," Selene nodded back at him. She might prioritise killing lycans when she was in the field herself, but there had been a few occasions where she'd been forced to bring them in alive for questioning. "In the meantime, you should get inside; we might as well see if this will work."

Swallowing in apprehension, Michael shrugged off his shirt and kicked off his shoes before he walked into the secure room. Selene moved to close the door, but paused long enough to allow him to toss his trousers out before he closed the door behind him.

Despite what they were about to do, Selene smiled at that particular touch. Michael had taken to buying new trousers from a charity shop before his last few transformations so that he would only lose something relatively cheap when he changed, but clearly he didn't want to lose his better trousers in this situation.

Moving back to the observation room, Selene smiled as she saw Michael crouching in the middle of the room; he evidently recognised the need for this room to be under observation, but he still didn't feel entirely comfortable putting himself on display. It was a funny example of human modesty, but Selene wasn't going to tease Michael about it when he had so many other issues to deal with right now.

_Besides, he looks rather good…_

Selene put that thought out of her mind as Michael let out an agonised roar and his body began to twist and change; whatever her thoughts about his human body, they weren't going to apply in the next few minutes. Selene could recall some of the biology lessons she'd received about lycan transformation as their understanding of the condition developed, and she tried not to get distracted by the thought of the pain Michael must be experiencing right now. Even as the transformation became more natural for older lycans, they would still experience agonies such as their bones breaking and re-shaping themselves, their skin being torn away as fur emerged, their muscles and skeletal structure twisting and growing…

In an academic way, it was fascinating to have the opportunity to see a lycan transform and know that she was relatively safe. Most transformed lycans basically treated their wolf as something they could point and aim at their enemy, but this was a rare occasion where she could be certain that the transformed lycan wouldn't attack her the moment she let her guard down. Watching Michael scream and roar in pain as his body twisted into its new shape, Selene suddenly wondered how much of what she'd always taken as lycans' feral roars was actually them trying to hide the pain of their transformation, but put that thought to the side; _they_ were always transforming with the intent to kill, where Michael was only changing now because his body was making him do it.

It took a couple of minutes, but eventually the screams of pain were replaced by the more familiar feral roar of an enraged wolf, all trace of Michael's human form replaced by a large lycan that howled in rage and slammed itself against the nearest wall. Selene allowed herself a moment to be impressed at how Kahn's work stood up to Michael's assault despite how little time he'd had to put this place together, the walls barely bending beneath his attack, but when he turned to charge towards the window, she shifted to prepare for an attack.

"Michael, _stop_!" she yelled, slamming her hand against the button that activated the room's internal communicator; it was instinct more than anything else, but she had to assure herself that she'd tried everything-

Michael stopped.

It wasn't a quick stop, and he was looking at the window with a feral edge to his expression that made it clear he wasn't entirely sure why he'd done it, but the fact remained that after she had spoken, he'd scrambled to halt his charge towards the window, and was now looking at it with a curious expression that she'd never seen on a lycan before.

"…Michael?" she said at last, her tone cautious. "Is… is that you?"

The lycan let out a curious growl that Selene wasn't sure how to interpret, but she wouldn't worry about the finer details of how to communicate with Michael in this state when something bigger was going on right now. For the first time in as long as she could recall, she was facing a transformed lycan that genuinely looked as though it _wasn't_ about to try and tear through her and anyone and anything between them both.

Granted, the transformed Michael still looked tense and uncomfortable as he paced around the room, but every time he looked at the mirrored glass… even if he couldn't see her directly, he seemed to calm down as though taking comfort in the knowledge that she was there.

"I… I don't think I've told you about my family, have I?" she said at last, feeling a need to say something as Michael looked at the window separating them. When the lycan simply looked at her in silence, Selene steeled herself and continued. "We lived on a farm that was basically run by my brother-in-law, but my father worked as an architect for a wide range of clients, renowned for his unique design ideas. My mother enjoyed the status we got from his work, but she always spared the time to take my nieces for horseriding lessons each day…"

As the lycan sat and watched the window, Selene wasn't sure if he would remember any of this when he returned to human form, but she was surprised to find that it didn't matter to her either way. If he remembered, she trusted him with that information, and if he didn't remember, she would tell him again later.

She didn't know when she'd get around to telling him this when he could ask her questions about it in turn, but it felt… good… to know that she trusted him with it.

She was suddenly struck by the thought that her father would approved of Michael if they'd had the chance to meet, but pushed that thought down; as much as she'd loved her father, he was long gone, and she and Michael didn't have _that_ kind of relationship…


End file.
